Movie afternoon here at the Bogardus Estate. Started off, by turning off, Far From Heaven 30 minutes into it. The movie captured the feel of the Fifties too well, so much so that it seemed on the edge of parody to me. I can’t explain it more that I didn’t get interested enough in the characters enough to care about their drama.
The next movie didn’t even get into the DVD player, Don’t Look Now. I originally rented after watching Donald Sutherland talk about the movie on Inside The Actor’s Studio. John Lipton effervesced over the film, plus they talked of rumors that the love scene between Donald and Julie Christie was not acting. But I forgot who was in the movie and when I read this blurb on the DVD sleeve, “John and Laura Baxter just lost their daughter in a tragic drowning accident. While living in Venice, an elderly psychic insists that she sees the spirit of the child. They’re unsure of whether to place their emotional well being in the hands of a stranger, but John begins to have psychic flashes of his own, seeing the child walk the streets of Venice. Is he insane, or is there a deeper meaning to the sightings?”, I just put it back in the envelope.
I did watch 2 movies all the way through. I had rented The Truth About Charlie and when I put it in the player it turns out I put it in upside down, as the movie on which it was based, Charade, was on that side of the disc. So what the heck, let’s watch this one first and then we can compare the two. I think that it was very stupid to include this version on the flip side because by comparison the original is a better movie than the update. Mark Walberg is a stick. Cary Grant just being his usual Cary Grant self has more on screen charisma than Marky Mark will ever have. Of course it could have been very smart to put these movies back-to-back, as it did make me watch “The Truth About Charlie” all the way through. I’m sorry I did, as the ending was muddled and seemed to have been made way different on purpose to differentiate the films.
